Loving Skye: Book Three (The Texas Star Series 3)

by Kelsie Stelting

  Howard got out of the pickup and walked toward where Rhett, Harliegh, and I sat on the horses. “Nice work, Skye.”

  I smiled. “Thanks.”

  “Well,” he said. “The feedlot’s about a mile off. You can ride if you want or we can load them up.”

  I looked to Rhett and Harleigh. “Want to ride?”

  They both nodded.

  Howard nodded too. “See you back at the house.”

  He got in the pickup and drove off with little pieces of hay flying off the bale behind him.

  “Hey,” Harleigh said. “Nice work today. I’d stick around, but I gotta go get ready for a date.” Her lips lifted easily. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See ya,” I called, but she’d already turned her horse and started at a lope down the road.

  Rhett and I nudged our horses forward, walking down the road again.

  I wanted to ask his advice, but I didn’t know how to start. “Hey, Rhett?”

  “Hey, Skye?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I have a question.”

  “I have an answer.”

  “You’re such a smartass.”

  “At your service.”

  I laughed.

  “What’s up?”

  “It’s about my sister. She said something, and I just wanted to ask you…” I stared down and ran my fingers through the horse’s rough mane. “Is it true that guys only want one thing? Like is that the reason why guys date in high school?”

  Rhett looked away from me, off over the horizon. “Skye, I might not be the best guy to ask.”

  Right. I’d gotten so used to seeing him as a friend, I’d forgotten his reputation. “Is that how you are?”

  Rhett sighed. “I don’t know.”

  “But—”

  “Skye, you take things so seriously. Look, you’re a senior, right? It’s your last year. Just enjoy yourself. Let what happens happen.”

  Apparently, Rhett didn’t know who he was dealing with.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Andrew: So, when do you get off work today?

  Me: Around six. Building fence today. Totally dead. SOSOS

  Andrew: LOLOL I hope you’ll survive, because I have a surprise for you.

  Me: What is it?

  Andrew: It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.

  Me: Yes it would. I’d just be surprised now instead of later.

  Andrew: haha nice try.

  Me: Darn.

  Andrew: Talk to you at six.

  Me: If I make it until then.

  I tucked my phone into my back pocket, pulled my leather glove back on, and got back to work tamping in a fence post. Basically, shoving dirt in a hole around a post and packing it down with a metal pole. It was repetitive, hard work that left my shoulders feeling like they were about to fall off.

  It was only ten o’clock, and I already felt like I was roasting under the summer sun. And I was going to have some intense tan lines on my wrists to match my tank top lines. On the bright side, Deena had said tamping would do great things to my bust line. I asked her what bust line. Rhett had laughed out loud.

  But I still didn’t understand why things were so strange between Rhett and me. Like ever since I asked him for advice, he’d been short, more focused on work than usual. Around lunch, I worked up the courage to ask him what was going on.

  “It’s just the heat,” he hedged.

  I raised my eyebrows at him. Rhett had been working like this since he was a child. Heat definitely didn’t bother him anymore.

  He swallowed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t make me say it.”

  Now I was getting nervous. “Say what?”

  “You know what happened between me and Savannah?”

  I shook my head. Actually, I hadn’t asked for the details. I was worried it would make me look at him differently.

  He stared hard at the floor of the pickup, his cheek twitching. “I cheated on her, Skye. With Harleigh’s friend Cheyenne. I lost Savannah, and Har barely talks to me now. And I feel like an ass when you ask me advice about guys because I blew it. I’m not a good guy.”

  Remorse was so plain on his hazel eyes, I reached out and touched his shoulder. “Maybe, but you’re a great friend.”

  He looked up at me, his expression lightening ever so slightly. “Yeah?”

  I smiled. “Yeah. And honestly, you’re losing your touch, softie.”

  He folded his arms over his chest and grinned. “Is that so?”

  I nodded. “Also, what do you do when you feel like your arms are going to fall off?”

  We talked and joked about work and life, but we steered the conversation away from relationships. It felt fun, light, like we could just be friends now that everything was out in the open.

  We kept working hard the rest of the day, and I hoped I would at least have time to shower before I got my surprise. My clothes were covered in dirt and creosote from the fenceposts, and I smelled like a sorry mixture of sweat and sunscreen. But when I neared my house, the first thing I saw was Andrew’s car.

  I stomped on the breaks. I’d made sure ever since the whole knee injury thing Andrew had only seen me looking human. Now… I glanced at my stained tank top. Well, this definitely wasn’t my best presentation.

  Someone drove around me, making me remember where I was. In my pickup in the middle of the road.

  I pulled up to the house and parked beside Andrew’s car. I peeked inside and saw only clean interior. Just another reminder of how different our lives were.

  As I walked closer to the house, I heard muffled conversation, laughter. That was better than the explosions and yelling I’d been picturing.

  Slowly, I walked inside, and the smell of chili enveloped me. “What the…”

  Andrew, Dad, and Mom were wearing matching Brindon Chili Co. aprons, standing around the stove.

  “Hey, squirt,” Dad said.

  Andrew smiled at me, and my heart jerked around my ribcage. How could he be smiling so wide in this house?

  “Hey?” I said. “What’s going on?”

  I stepped a little closer to the pot they all huddled around, and Andrew dipped a spoon in.

  “Try it.” He held it out.

  I looked at him, a small smile playing on my lips. “Okay?” I blew on it and then bit the wooden spoon enough to let the explosion of flavors dance on my tongue. “Oh my gosh, that’s so good.”

  Mom’s eyes lit up. “I told you we needed more oregano.”

  “You put oregano in chili?” I asked.

  “The Hoffner Chili Group does,” she said.

  Andrew grinned at me. “Surprise.”

  Dad squeezed my shoulder. “Welcome to the team. First competition is Saturday.”

  I looked around for Liz, but I didn’t see her. “Where’s Liz?”

  She had to have said something about how ridiculous this all was. Mom and Dad talked about ideas like this all the time, but they never actually followed through.

  Mom nodded toward the bedroom. “She was feeling a little sick to her stomach.”

  “Ah.” I nodded, suddenly remembering how gross I was. “Well, I don’t want the Hoffner Chili Coalition—”

  “Group,” Andrew corrected.

  “Right. Group. To get written up for a health code violation.” I gestured at my outfit. “I’m going to go get cleaned up.”

  Andrew winked at me, and luckily, neither of my parents saw him. But at this point, up was down and backwards was forward, and Dad might have patted him on the back and said, “’Atta boy.”

  They all turned back to the pot, Mom talking about writing the recipe down, Andrew and Dad talking about T-shirt designs for our first official cook-off.

  I popped my head in the room and found Liz curled around a mostly empty bowl. “Liz?”

  “What?” she croaked.

  I moved closer. “Are you okay?”

  She started talking but heaved into the bucket. Instinctively, I moved toward her and rubbed her shoulder. My st
omach sank because this was exactly the fear I’d shoved in the back of my mind. Liz couldn’t be sick. Even if she was an absolute jerk, she had spunk. I couldn’t stand seeing her broken like this.

  She finished and spit.

  I stared at her. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

  “Oh, what the hell.” She let out a sardonic laugh that turned into a cough. “I’m not okay. I’m pregnant.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  My hand flew over my mouth. “Oh my god.”

  Liz’s head fell on her pillow.

  “How far along are you?” That’s what you asked pregnant women, right?

  She shook her head. “Eight weeks.”

  I did the math in my head. “That’s why you came here.”

  Her eyes closed under her long lashes, and tears broke the dam. I didn’t need any more answer than that.

  “Does Dorian know?”

  She shook her head.

  “Was he bad to you?”

  Again, she shook her head. “That’s the problem. I can’t be a parent. I don’t even know how to take care of myself. I never learned, Skye. I mean, you’re my little sister, and I’m always too wrapped up in my own problems to even help you. To respond to a freaking Facebook message.”

  I couldn’t say anything, because it was true. Liz hadn’t messaged me back, not because she hadn’t gotten it, but because she’d chosen not to. And how would we know how to be parents when all we’d learned growing up was what not to do?

  She sniffed into her pillow. “Don’t let love take you off track. I wanted to be a nurse, but I got so caught up in being married, in paying bills, that I let it go, and now I have a baby on the way and no way of supporting it. No job. Dorian’s a musician. This will ruin his dreams, and he’ll hate me.” She wrapped her arms around her middle. “Us.”

  “Had you guys talked about kids?”

  “Yeah.” She wiped at her eyes. “That’s why I know it will ruin everything.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to ask her what that meant. I just rubbed her shoulders some more, and she sobbed. “What are you going to do?”

  “I can’t have this baby.”

  My gut twisted, and I thought I might need her bucket. “Liz, you don’t mean you’re going to have an abortion, do you?”

  She broke out in a fresh round of sobs, and I cradled her head in an awkward hug. There was so much I didn’t understand, so much I wanted to say, but I kept all the questions and doubts buried.

  “Can I just have some time alone?” she asked.

  “Are you sure?”

  Still shaking, she nodded, and even though everything in me screamed to stay and comfort her, I got up off the bed.

  She grabbed my arm. “Wait. Promise you won’t tell anyone. Not even Andrew.”

  My eyes darted from her to the other room where I could still hear our parents and Andrew talking.

  “Promise,” she said.

  I blew out a heavy sigh. “Okay.”

  Her tear-stained eyes shot through my heart. “Thank you.”

  I brushed some hair off her forehead. “Anything.” I dropped a kiss on her clammy skin. “I love you.”

  I grabbed my clothes, and as I walked out of the room, I heard her breathe, “I love you too.”

  Legs feeling like rubber, I walked into the bathroom and started washing away the day—the messy, heartbreaking day.

  After drying off and getting dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror for a long time. Liz and I were always mistaken for twins when we were younger, but our differences were about to become clearer.

  I took in a deep breath. How I was supposed to act normal in front of my parents and Andrew was beyond me, but I had to try.

  When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw Dad, Mom, and Andrew at the table, huddled around a notebook. I stood in the entrance, watching them. Andrew had a pen poised over the page, taking direction from my parents.

  “I always like a good pun,” he said, “but you can choose any slogan you want. Maybe a play on your last name?”

  Mom looked toward the ceiling. “Hmm. Maybe something about it melting in your mouth? Or a surprising new flavor?”

  Dad nodded. “Like a surprise in your mouth.”

  Andrew snickered, and Mom and Dad stared at him.

  I rolled my eyes. His dirty mind.

  “What?” Dad asked.

  I stepped forward. “Andrew’s gross.”

  Mom covered her mouth with both of her hands. “Bill!”

  Realization crossed his visage. “Not that kind of surprise!” He cracked up laughing until tears leaked out the corner of his eyes, and we all joined in. I’d never seen my dad this happy before. But it was hard to enjoy it knowing in just the other room Liz was dealing with tears of her own.

  Andrew blew out a breath. “Okay, any other ideas?”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “How are we supposed to top ‘We bean business’?”

  “I mean, you’re not.” Andrew winked. “But second best isn’t bad.”

  Dad folded his arms across his chest. “Second best? We’ll see this weekend.”

  Mom nodded. “And I think I have one.”

  Andrew angled the pen over the paper. “What is it?”

  “I love chili from my head tomatoes.”

  I slapped my forehead and dragged my hand over my face. “From my head to my toes?”

  Grinning, Andrew said, “I think you have a winner.”

  He helped them work out a rough sketch for the shirts and said his mom would help make iron-ons for our shirts for Saturday. And then he asked Dad if he could take me out for a milkshake.

  Dad actually shook Andrew’s hand and said, “Have a good time.”

  Andrew led me out to his car and started toward the diner. We reached the stoplight—our stoplight—and he looked over at me. A red light.

  This was it, the moment that would say clearer than words what we were.

  He leaned forward to kiss me, but I pulled away.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Andrew stared at me, hurt plain in his wide-open blue eyes. His features expressed the kind of raw vulnerability people like me couldn’t even dream of. The kind that said he loved with his whole heart and took risks that would terrify me to death.

  Andrew wasn’t just some guy I crushed on and went on dates with. He was getting to know my family now, making friends with my parents, getting my sister to laugh. So why did kissing him feel like it would mean kissing my dreams goodbye?

  Andrew’s disappointed look was replaced with an even smile, and when the light turned green, he kept driving. He started small talk about figuring out my parents’ chili recipes and how it might even be a tight competition Saturday. I tried to keep up without feeling too guilty for brushing him off.

  After parking, we walked into the diner and sat in a booth. I didn’t think the night could get worse, but life had a habit of proving me wrong. There, across the restaurant, a set of beautiful green eyes stared back at me. Damon.

  He sat in a back booth with Shelby, her narrow shoulders fitting easily under his arms and their noses nuzzled together.

  “Oh brother,” I mumbled, glaring down at the worn laminate table. Of course, they were the kind of couple who sat on the same side of the booth.

  “What?” Andrew asked, looking toward the back. He lowered his voice. “Is that your arch nemesis?” He said it like the announcer in a soap opera.

  My heart sank. “And my ex.”

  “That’s the guy you were dating?” Andrew twisted further in his seat, taking him in. Damon was too wrapped up in Shelby to even notice.

  “You didn’t creep him on Facebook?”

  His cheeks turned pinker. “That’s a girl thing.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Uh huh.”

  His lips twitched. “But seriously, that’s so weird. Do you want to get out of here?”

  I picked at some dirt under my nail. “No. It doesn’t matter.”

  Andrew’s warm hand covered mi
ne. “It’s okay if you want to leave.”

  “No, really.” I forced a smile. “I’m here with you.”

  He smiled back. “Good, because we have some ground to make up.”

  A waitress took our orders, and I had the hardest time keeping my eyes on her and off of Shelby and Damon, who were now in a very public display of tongues-down-each-other’s-throat affection.

  Gag me.

  “So,” Andrew said.

  “So.”

  “What’s going on with your sister?”

  I gulped. Like, out loud. When did I become a cartoon character?

  Andrew played it off like nothing happened. “Did you find out if she’s sick?”

  Thank God, an out. “I think she and her husband are on the rocks.”

  “Is she going back to him?”

  I shrugged, not wanting to meet his eyes. “Who knows with Liz.”

  He rubbed my forearm across the table. “I bet that’s tough to watch her struggle.”

  Tears pricked my eyes, and I nodded.

  Then came a voice I hated. “Skye?”

  Great. I lifted my teary eyes up to Shelby who was smiling so smugly I wished I could smack it off her face. If she said one snotty thing, I actually might. This was not my day. Damon stood right behind her, his hands linked around her waist and his chin on her shoulder.

  “Hi, Damon.” I said.

  “Hi, Skye,” he said.

  “This is Andrew,” I said to Damon, still pretending Shelby didn’t exist. “Sorry, we’re kind of on a date, so...” Take a hint and leave.

  Even though they didn’t walk away, the look of shock that crossed Damon’s face was satisfying enough. “You already have a boyfriend?”

  That was rich.

  Andrew stared at me like he was waiting for my answer as much as Damon was.

  We weren’t labeling it, but I wasn’t going to tell them that. I looked between him and Shelby. “I mean, you two looked pretty cozy.”

  Shelby did a half turn and put her hand on her chest so she could point her adoring eyes up at him. “After I found out you let him go, I had to reach out.”

  “Yeah.” Damon folded his arms over his chest. “But we’re just friends.”